At
just 26 years old, Tau Ceramica forward Luis Scola can accurately be
described as a standard-bearer of the Euroleague Basketball decade. He
debuted in 2000, barely out of his teens, by helping Tau reach a
Euroleague final. In the last two seasons, he has added consecutive
Final Four appearances and a spot on the All-Euroleague First Team.
Already tied for the most games played, Scola could become the
Euroleague's all-time scoring leader by the end of this season. All of
which is not to mention his role on the international stage as one of
the Argentine stars who helped usher in a new world order of
basketball. On the occasion of his being named Euroleague Basketball's
MVP for December, Euroleague.net spoke with Scola about where he has
been and where he and Tau might be going in 2007. "We are always there,
fighting and competing, which is something special about Tau," Scola
told Euroleague.net. "If we just keep going like that, we will get to
the highest point, winning the Euroleague trophy, sooner or later. If
we keep working like we are, it's only a matter of time."
Luis,
congratulations on being the December MVP. After losing on opening day
at Olympiacos, you guys have been perfect 8-0 in the Euroleague and
almost perfect in the Spanish League. Is this possibly the best Tau
team you have been on yet?
"That's a hard question,
because I have been playing here seven years now, and I have seen so
many good players and so many good teams in that time. It's hard for me
say which is best right now, mostly because we are talking in December.
The best way to judge teams is when the season is over and you can
compare championships, losses, cups or whatever. On the other hand, I
think that so far this is a pretty good team that can go far. I can
compare it with our team that won 15 consecutive games one season. But
I can't say which is best. I hope that after the season I can say this
one is the best."
How important was it to win these three
games in December, two on the road at Le Mans and Dynamo, and at home
against Olympiacos?
"It was a really important month for
us. We finished by playing in Moscow, which was a really tough game. We
had Olympiacos at home, the only team that had beaten us, the team we
were fighting for first place. And we had Le Mans away, which was not
just a tough game for being a Euroleague game away, but because they
were playing well, which made it that much harder. Fortunately we beat
all of them, and we came close to recovering the 19-point difference we
had with Olympiacos from the first game that we lost. We wanted to win
by that much because it would have given us the advantage in a tie for
first place. On the other hand, we won the game and took first place,
which was good, and then winning in Moscow a week later was the
confirmation."
At 26, you have won almost everything title
put in front of you - except the Euroleague trophy. Is that the main
goal of your career right now?
"I think that for everybody
playing in Europe that is certainly the main goal. Even more than a
goal, it's like a dream. So for me, who has never won it, it's even
more important - the strongest dream. I hope this can be the year. I
think we have the team and a good chance, but the Euroleague is always
so tough. If they make it, Panathinaikos at home in a Final Four will
be very tough. You have the defending champs CSKA, Maccabi, Barcelona,
so many good teams, and that's just the just first line. If you think
about second- and third-line teams like Joventut, Unicaja, Dynamo and
others, it's amazing. You start counting and you don't stop. That's
what makes the league so amazing."
 During
your time with Tau, the club has gone from being a top outsider to
being one of the elite, a favorite each season. Did you ever imagine
that people would think of Tau in the same way they think of some teams
you mentioned: Panathinaikos, Barcelona, CSKA, Maccabi?
"If
you go back 10 or 15 years, people would never have believed it could
happen. Now, everything has changed. It shows how good is the work of
the club and the players on Tau. How fast it has grown is amazing. The
point is that we are there every year fighting. Sometimes we lose,
sometimes we go farther, but we are always there fighting and
competing, which is something special about Tau. If we just keep going
like that, we will get to the highest point, winning the Euroleague
trophy, sooner or later. If we keep working like we are, it's only a
matter of time."
Despite your being so young, no one has
played more Euroleague games this decade and you rank among the an
all-time leaders in several statistical categories. What has playing in
the Euroleague meant to you during your career?
"It's
something really, really important for me. When I signed for Tau, I
didn't really know what the Euroleague represented. But when I got here
and started seeing how big it is, how much everyone cares so much to
play in the Euroleague, to try to make the Final Four and to try to win
it - then I realized. For me, all seven seasons have been pretty
amazing. If I could win it once, it would be very, very emotional for
me."
We hear you are a great student of the game, and especially of Kevin McHale. What do you try to learn from watching old games?
"Yes,
I prefer to watch classic games, old games with historic value. There
were some great games out there, and yes, I like McHale and the Celtics
a lot. I'd say it's hard to learn from them, because they were too
good. But I love to watch them, because that time between the Celtics
and the Lakers was maybe the most magnificent basketball ever."
You
were second in MVP voting at the last Olympic Games. You and Argentina
own that gold medal, plus you almost won the previous World
Championships. Now the country where you play, Spain, is the world
champ. Did you ever imagine as a young player that such change in world
basketball was possible?
"I think it's something
completely crazy. When I was really young, I always loved basketball,
was always crazy about watching the games. Even though in Argentina it
was the second sport, it was so far from football that no one knew
anything about basketball. Sometimes when I played as a child, I
dreamed about being on the national team and winning a world
championship. But even for me, the idea sounded crazy, not realistic at
all. To think Argentina could win something like that made no sense at
all. It was dreaming, just that. Now, 20 years later, we have won the
Olympic Games and played in a World Championships final and semifinal.
Everything has changed in such a magnificent way. It was so unexpected
that when I think about it, sometimes it's hard for me - even though I
lived through it - to believe that all of this has really happened."
 Looking
ahead a bit, many Euroleague teams want to make the Final Four in
Athens. Tau lived through something similar last season, winning Game 3
of the Quarterfinal Playoffs at OAKA Olympic arena. What can you say
about the atmosphere there in such a big game?
"I think
everybody knows how hard it is to play and win in Athens. The fans are
so crazy, but in a good way: cheering for their team, standing,
singing, waving flags. On the one hand, it's hard to play there,
especially if you face Panathinaikos, because the fans really keep them
motivated. On other hand, it's very nice to play in that kind of game:
the atmosphere, the singing, the colors, the flags. That's pretty much
the atmosphere that everyone likes to play in, as opposed to before the
Olympics when the teams there played in small gyms with 2,000 people.
It was easier to win before, but even when it's harder now, it's better
for the show, the players and everybody."
Finally, having
reached the last two Final Fours, will you consider just getting there
again to be a success or do you only want to win it all?
"Just
getting to the Final Four is a success, no question about it. I think
everybody who really knows what all this is about takes making the
Final Four as a big success. On the other hand, getting there two times
and coming close to winning has been hard. After the first and second
time, not winning a third time will be worse. So if we get there, we
won't be completely happy if we lose. We want to go farther this time -
if we get there, which will be so hard because of all the great teams
we mentioned before. So it will be hard to get there, but in our heads,
once we're there, we want to go a little farther then ever before."
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